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What is Surusu?

But, to put it briefly, an SRS is an electronic flashcard system that stacks, shuffles and schedules itself, in order to maximize long-term retention of information, while minimizing the time spent reviewing that information. It does that by “learning” about you through the scores you give yourself on items you review.

The ideaof spaced repetition has been around for along time, and began extensive automation as software thanks to the singular efforts ofoneDr. Piotr Wozniak. But only recently is it beginning to become more widely known. Here’s a summary ofwhat‘s unique about Surusuin particular:

Free! As in “BitTorrent”. Surusu is completely free to use and will always remain free to use.

Web-based: Surusu is entirely web-based. While this does require you to have an active Internet connection to use it, the benefit is that your data remain the same wherever you are, allowing you to do your reviews from anywhere in the world, free of the burden of carrying and synchronizing your data.

Extensive cross-compatibility: Surusu is built to be usable on as many types of devices as possible. Whether you usea PC, Mac, cellphone, iPhone or PDA, whatever your operating system, Surusu shouldwork for you as long as you have an Internet connection.

Simple, reliable, fast: Surusu is designed to be as simple, reliable and fast as possible, with the idea that machines are supposed to make our lives easier, not more difficult.

Built-in priority-based rescheduling with capping: Fromtime to time, things happen. You can‘t always do your reviews (also known as “repetitions” or “reps”); sometimes you canonlydo some of your reviews. Assuming the unexpected, Surusu avoids punishing you, by always putting acap on the numberof items (“cards”) you are asked to revieweachday. Of course, if you have the time and the motivation, and want to review more, Surusu allows that, too. Surusu’s rescheduling algorithm also has the benefitofstabilizing your daily reviewtime, preventing the wild shifts in daily reviewquantity that would otherwise with pureinterval calculation [“you must seethis card because the schedule says today is the day to seethis card and there’s no arguing with or changing of the schedule no matterwhat“], while also using priority calculations to ensure you see the cards that need your attention most.

Flexible: Spaced repetition isn’t just for learning languages. A base of memorized information is essential inall fields of knowledge. As long as it can be represented in some form of image, text or sound, Surusucanhelp you remember it.

Growing: Surusu is constantly evolving, and its creator (me) is oneof its most active “customers”, using it for his entire learning process across multiple fields of subject matter — mathematics, physical science, general knowledge, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese — with cards numbering in the tens of thousands. Useful new features are constantly being added to improve the user experience. Since its inception as “KhatzuMemo“, thousands ofother users have performed millions of card reviews on it.

Multilingual Unicode support: whatever the language, if it can be typed into a computer, then Surusu candisplay it. ‘Nuff said. Surusu handles evenobscure colloquial characters and filenames for language such as Cantonese with ease.

Surusu is neither the first toolof its kind nor the onlyone. There are manyother options out there; they each have their strengths and weaknesses; Iencourage you to look at them and seewhat‘s best for you…

…before you inevitably cast them all aside with inexplicably dogmatic and visceral disdain, infavorof Surusu!!! The onetrue SRS!!! POWER! UNLIMITED POWER! In fact, what are you waiting for? Sign up for an account today and start solidifying your investment of knowledge acquisition.

Thanks for reading this far 🙂 . For even more information on the science behind SRS and the conceptof spaced repetition you might want to look at these articles here:

I think I might be tech-challenged…but I’m having serious trouble with Surusu. I’ve added some test cards so I could get a feel for how things worked. But every time I select Do Reps, a quick screen flashes with something like “Reps done/Good job” or something and then back to the single drop down menu again. Why won’t it let me do the cards I put in? Am I just using this all wrong? I need help! Arigatou!